“I know I’ve got three opponents tonight: I’ve got Dolph Ziggler, I’ve got Drew on the outside, and I’ve got the clock” – Seth Rollins
At Extreme Rules 2018, WWE made history when it picked the Intercontinental title match as the main event. It would mark only the second time (power outages notwithstanding) this had happened; the first was the legendary British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart match in the Summerslam 1992.
Clearly, WWE was making a statement, putting its faith in champion Dolph Ziggler and challenger Seth Rollins to close the pay-per-view with a true mat classic. And this time, the match wouldn’t have the benefit of a hometown hero and a massive crowd.
What it would have was a guaranteed 30 minutes thanks to the Iron Man stipulation. The Iron Match, with its scoreboard to show you who’s winning and by how much, made it much easier to tell a story.
The story of this match was that Dolph Ziggler was losing badly until Drew McIntyre blatantly interfered, allowing Dolph to recoup his losses and then some. It was then up to Seth to overcome the odds and score two pinfalls before time ran out.
That’s the story WWE wanted to tell, at least. The fans were following a different story:
Number go down.
Aside from Dolph Ziggler looking like a hot dog, nothing out of the ordinary occured in the first few minutes of the match. But if you listened super carefully, you could just make out a few fans following along with the clock on the Titantron, counting down to the 26- and 25-minute marks.
By 24:10, though, it was impossible to ignore; thousands of fans counted down from 10 to 1, complete with a simulated buzzer sound.
This happened again a minute later, with Michael Cole even acknowledging the crowd having fun with the clock. Royal Rumble was six months away, but the fans in Pittsburgh got to have their own personal Royal Rumble…
…except—and I cannot stress this enough—nothing happened when the clock hit :00.
Fifty seconds later, Rollins hit the curb stomp on Ziggler, popping the crowd, who ignored the clock this time around. It seemed the trick was to hit a finishing move every minute when the clock reached ten.
Seth scored the pinfall before Drew McIntyre blatantly interfered, earning Seth another fall by DQ. This was the moment that was to change the entire complexion of the contest…
This was when McIntyre would render Rollins helpless, allowing Dolph Ziggler to pick the scraps. Ordinarily, the crowd would boo here. Instead, they counted down from 10. Twice.
Whether restless from the previous three and a half hours, indifferent to an IC title match as the main event, bored seeing Seth and Dolph wrestle for the third time in a month, or caught up in the sheer novelty of it all, the crowd had hijacked the bout.
The last thing WWE wanted was for fans to cheer every 60 seconds while Dolph Ziggler was supposed to be getting heat by spamming pinfalls…
…so they turned off the clock for the live audience.
Fans booed alright—louder than they had all match and probably all night. Too bad for WWE, it had nothing to do with Ziggler’s heel work.
The main event was no longer Ziggler vs. Rollins, but WWE vs. the fans (and their clock).
Now less invested in the main event than ever, some fans took out their phones to stream the match on the WWE Network, which still displayed the time remaining. Others didn’t even bother with the actual time, but chanted anyway.
The result? Two dueling countdowns, one coming every 60 seconds, the other coming whenever the fans felt like it, and occasionally capped off with a “Happy New Year!”
Did I mention it was July?
What was supposed to be a landmark moment for the Intercontinental title had turned into TGI McScratchy’s.
Could you imagine Bret and Davey Boy having to put up with constant distractions by annoying fans? I mean, besides those infernal noisemakers?
But WWE weathered the storm, keeping the clock off until the crowd’s rebellious spirit was broken. So with 9:45 remaining in the match, WWE, confident they’d won the battle, turned the clock back on. It got the biggest pop of the match.
Once again, the fans did their countdowns every minute for the rest of the match, no matter what was happening in the ring. Seth got kicked off the top turnbuckle to the floor? We feel for him, but…
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-ANNGGGH!
Oh, Seth just pinned Dolph to tie the match at last? That’s great and all, but…
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-ANNNGGGGHH!
These Countdowns to Nothing really undercut the urgency Seth and Dolph were trying to convey in those final minutes.
When Coach asked, “Does Rollins know that we’re under 45 seconds?” it was a legitimate question. After over two dozen phony countdowns, did Seth realize the next one would be for real? It was a classic case of The Boy Who Cried 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-AAANNNNNGGGGGHHH!
With mere seconds on the clock, Rollins stomped Ziggler, but time ran out before he could pin him. Ironically, the one time the fans didn’t count down was when there really were just ten seconds left.
So the buzzer sounded—for real this time—and then silence. The least the sound guys could have done was play Auld Lang Syne.
It appeared Dolph Ziggler had escaped with his title thanks to a draw…
…until Pittsburgh’s own Kurt Angle appeared. A draw was no way to send the crowd home, so the GM called an audible, declaring that there must be a winner. Frankly, he really should have sorted that out beforehand.
The match would therefore continue under sudden death rules, meaning—at least, there was no need for a timer. So would the fans actually watch the match now, or would they demand a clock be put up on the big screen just for fun?
We’d never find out, though, as Ziggler won within seconds off a distraction.
Seven years on, the match would be remembered only for the audience hijinks, if remembered at all. WWE hasn’t run a main roster Iron Man match since.
If they ever do again, though, they should consider holding it on New Year’s Eve.